I Thought i would ask eels fans ( since we are all intelligent ) , your thoughts on suspensions of players who cause serious injury intensionally .
If for example , a player is taken out of play --- that player is injured for 3 months or more (season) , Do you agree with the current system , or should the offender get 3 months as well ?
Currently an offender can risk a week or two to take out a key player , i feel some teams use this as a means of targeting players towards the back end of the year .
I will not name them , you can guess what teams do it .
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I ask though, who the hell is going to make the call? What sort of incident can be deemed as an effort to injure somebody?
All the time, we have players jumping on attacking players legs to bring them down. Most know this has the potential to cause serious injuries such as Ash Graham's broken leg against the Broncos quite a few years ago. Did the Bronco deliberately break Ash's leg...doubtful.
You get incidents such as the former Storm player (name intentially omitted) chasing his tackler and thumping him, or a NSW forward (name again omitted) elbowing the Big Maaaarn in SOO. Did they deliberately break jaws or want to...doubtful.
The game really can't afford to let injuries factor into time on the side line. Too many legal loop holes and civil rights to contend with.
The only recent incident I recall where a player was intentionally injured was where Willie Mason held a prone Craig Wing and Riley Brown hit him in the ribs damaging his sternum. There's no way those two players weren't aware of the inherent danger of what they did and they should have had the book thrown at them in my opinion.
impossible to monitor. If Hindy hits Benji one second late, benji lands on his glass shoulder and its smashes and he is out for the season - whilst penalty worthy, are you asking should Hindy be suspended for the season?? ummm .... NO!
As others have said, i dont think anyone goes out intentionally to injure someone. To target their weakness, eg if they've copped a knock to a certain shoulder - run at that shoulder, or smash a little bloke, yes - but not intentionally to cause malice.
Oh, and who determines intent?? The refs cant even get basic calls right!! strap the player to a lie detector.